Login modes other than forms authentication is ASP.NET

Question

Am trying to design login page for my website and I am looking for methods other than forms authentication. The way in which I am trying is to have a table in the database that stores user information and check for the user validity.

The point where I get struck is how do i set cookies and session variables and how will I carry it through out the system. Can anyone tell/suggest me where I can relevant material so as to move forward. And also is my idea of negating traditional forms authentication and going for a model I described, is it good also does any other better method exist?

Answer 1

You can do this even with forms authentication itself...

For Forms Authentication to work, you need not have to use the Complete Database Setup that MS uses to Authenticate. You can simply have your own Database and Validate a user yourself, and just set the cookie.

String UserName = "CoolGuy"; 
String PassWord = "Pwd"
Boolean isValidUser = YourClass.YourMethod(UserName, PassWord); 
if (isValidUser) 
{ FormsAuthentication.setAuthCookie(UserName, false); } 

This will authenticate the user "CoolGuy" for the session, provided YourMethod returns true. And you need to put this code only in Login Page... and the user will automatically be authenticated for the entire session or whatever...

Please see my response to another similar question here... http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1572635/asp-net-access-controls/1572886#1572886